Michaela Petroski, a student at SwAMP Camp, jumped at the chance to shoot her rocket more than once and was the first to chase after rockets when they hit the ground.

“It was fun building rockets,” she said.

SwAMP (Science with Art Math and Problem solving) Camp is a week-long summer camp for children of the May Center School for autism and developmental disabilities. The program allows this year’s 30 eighth- to 10th-grade campers to bring to life science, art, math and problem-solving concepts they have been learning in school.

“What we are hoping is to see some of those abstract concepts come to life,” Cheryl White, executive director, said.

The campers’ favorite projects are the big, flashy, exciting ones, like the bottle rockets. White said after certain projects, students become more interested in the subjects.

“We see a lot of renewed interest in certain topics,” White said.

SwAMP director Lindsay Emmanuel said the main goal of the camp is for the kids to have a good recreational and social experience.

“I love when the staffers are surprised at how well the kids do at a camp and see them being kids,” she said.

Thursday’s theme was movie effects. Along with the rockets, students created their own sound effects and worked with green screens.

Camper Tyler Blissard, 13, dressed up as a rabbit in front of the green screen and hopped around on the moon. Tyler Blissard’s teacher Caitlin Kerr said he is loving his first time at the camp.

“His mom reached out to me the other day and said when he came home she asked him a lot of questions about camp and he had the biggest smile on his face and was telling her things that he did,” Kerr said.

She says when she gives Tyler Blissard his five minute warning in the morning, signaling it is time to go to camp, he will immediately grab the sunscreen, his backpack and his hat to prepare for his day full of activities.

Other activities students do at the camp are dry ice bubble art, play with slime and code for robots. One new activity at SwAMP Camp this year is taking care of the garden.

“We water it, make sure it has enough food, everything,” Michaela Petroski said.